Women and the Twittersphere are hitting the headlines – for all the wrong reasons. According to the Independent’s Twitter 100 list only 18 of the top Tweeters are women. Media campaigners are calling on broadcasters to sign a pledge to ensure that 30 per cent of guest pundits are female – and not just when they need case studies or ‘victim’ comments. Why are so few women considered authoritative or influential in social media beyond ‘niche’ topics? And why are so many women still being excluded from the media, despite making up around 50 per cent of its workforce?
Join Words of Colour Productions and an exciting panel of female social media experts to discuss the real stories behind the headlines.
Panellists
Sanam Dolatshahi is a social media reporter and presenter on BBC Persian Television’s interactive show Nowbat-e Shoma (Your Turn). The first Iranian woman to start blogging in Iran in 2001, she is founder of Cappuccino, Iran’s first e-zine, and was the online editor of Women in Iran, the first Iranian feminist website published inside the country. Sanam has an MA in Women’s Studies from the University of Florida and her thesis was on the role and presence of feminists websites in Iran.
Lis Howell is director of broadcasting and head of the MA courses in Broadcast and Television Journalism at City University London. A Harvard Business School graduate, she is leading a new campaign with Broadcast magazine to encourage broadcast outlets to increase the number of female experts interviewed on TV and radio. She began as a producer and reporter at BBC Radio Leeds in 1973. As head of news at Border TV she covered the Lockerbie disaster in 1989, winning an RTS Award. She became managing editor of Sky News in 1990 and was the first director of programmes at GMTV, before starting the UK Living Channel.
Hana Riaz is a recent politics graduate of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and is undertaking a Masters in Race, Ethnicity and Postcolonial Studies at the London School of Economics. She is a black Muslim feminist, writer, blogger and columnist for Ceasefire Magazine. Her work seeks to explore intersectional identities and systems of domination, and in particular race and gender.
Minna Salami is a blogger, writer and social commentator on African feminism, pop culture, and race, and is founder/editor of the multiple award-nominated blog MsAfropolitan.com, an online shop and tribute to the African Women’s Decade 2010–2020. Minna’s writing and commentary have featured on the Huffington Post and CNN.com and in The Guardian and ARISE magazine. She has been a guest speaker and pundit at the Southbank Centre, University of Warwick and on Channel 4. Minna is doing an MA in Gender Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
The panel debate will be facilitated by Julie Tomlin, Words of Colour’s creative programmes manager, and chaired by Words of Colour’s executive director Joy Francis, and the event is being hosted with support from English PEN.
Venue: Free Word Centre, 60 Farringdon Road, London, EC1R 3GA
Date: Wednesday 30 May 2012
Time: 6.30pm-8pm
Price: £2
To book: http://www.freewordonline.com/events/detail/have-women-got-twitter-clout
Tel: Free Word on 020 7324 2570